“Lucinella” reviewed

Over at Vol.1, I have some thoughts on the recent Melville House reissue of Lore Segal’s novella Lucinella.

The novella’s initial realism quickly ebbs away, revealing a world in which gods and literary personages are interchangeable, panel discussions play out like avant-garde theater, and no less than three versions of the title character can be found at various social events. And while some of the concerns addressed over the course of Lucinella seem specific to its mid-1970s New York City setting, others are more universal

The whole thing can be read here.

Dzanc!

As a quick reminder: I’m taking part in Dzanc Books’ Write-A-Thon today.

My earlier post on the subject had some background on it and why I’m taking part. Other folks taking part include Steven Gillis, J.A. Tyler, and Jana Martin, among others.

I can also say that my story references the musician known as Solex, the city known as Budapest, and the precipitation known as snow.

I think its tone presently fits somewhere between “wistful” and “creepy.”

In Which ‘Crazy Heart’ is Reviewed

I reviewed the film Crazy Heart for Flavorwire. My thoughts on it were somewhat mixed.

Writer-director Cooper – here adapting Thomas Cobb’s novel – introduces the less savory aspects of Blake’s life with a heavy hand. That includes early scenes in which Blake handles a bottle of his own urine and drunkenly fishes his sunglasses out of a pool of vomit. Bad Blake is a mixture of admirable work ethic and disreputable habits, but the low vocal register in which Bridges suggests decades of hard living and unhealthy habits is much more striking than these small moments of degradation.

You can read the whole thing here.

Music / Lists / etc.

It’s worth mentioning that both Dusted and Tiny Mix Tapes now have their musical year-in-review polls and features up. I contributed to both, though my ballots for each were slightly different. I’ll also have some more book-oriented thoughts due in the not-so-distant future for Big Other and Vol. 1 — though for the former, I also attempted to make amends for leaving Thee Oh Sees’ Help off both my Dusted and TMT ballots.

TOP 10 ALBUMS (for Dusted, 11.29.09)

1. David Bazan, Curse Your Branches
2. Pink Mountaintops, Outside Love
3. The Dutchess and The Duke, Sunset/Sunrise
4. Yo La Tengo, Popular Songs
5. Fuck Buttons, Tarot Sport
6. Julianna Barwick, Florine
7. Dan Deacon, Bromst
8. Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion
9. Screaming Females, Power Move
10. Various Artists, Fire In My Bones: Raw Rare + Otherwordly African-American Gospel (1944-2007)

TOP 25 ALBUMS (for Tiny Mix Tapes, 12.4.09)

25. Amadou & Mariam, Welcome to Mali
24. No Age, Losing Feeling
23. Comet Gain, Broken Record Prayers
22. Various Artists, Dark Was the Night
21. Obits, I Blame You
20. Bon Iver, Blood Bank
19. Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
18. Girls, Album
17. Califone,  All My Friends Are Funeral Singers
16. Noveller, Red Rainbows
15. dälek, Gutter Tactics
14. Jonsi & Alex, Riceboy Sleeps
[Note: my original #13 was also the Screaming Females disc, because I apparently can't count. All things being equal, the Oh Sees album mentioned above would fit pretty nicely into this slot, I'd say.]
12. The Mountain Goats, The Life of the World to Come
11. Yo La Tengo, Popular Songs
10. Dan Deacon, Bromst
9. Tune-Yards, Bird-Brain
8. Screaming Females, Power Move
7. Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion
6. Various Artists, Fire In My Bones: Raw Rare + Otherwordly African-American Gospel (1944-2007)
5. Julianna Barwick, Florine
4. Fuck Buttons, Tarot Sport
3. Pink Mountaintops, Outside Love
2. The Dutchess and The Duke, Sunset/Sunrise
1. David Bazan,  Curse Your Branches

On Bookstores

For the last few years, I’ve been out in the Northwest at least once a year. And while my fondness for Portland’s Powell’s is something of a given, I’m equally fond of Seattle’s Elliott Bay Book Company, a store I first visited while on a trip to Seattle in mid-2004. Beyond simply falling for the space itself, it’s always struck me as the ideal of a well-curated bookstore, with smart recommendations and an oddly rewarding browsing experience. And given that one of their staff recommendations turned me on to the work of Charles D’Ambrosio, I have no complaints.

I’d followed the news of their issues with their current space and possible move with interest, and I’m glad to hear that a new space has been found. This piece in The Stranger gives a history of both the store as a while and the process by which they found the space which — if all goes according to plan — I’ll be trekking to when making my annual trip out west next April.

Team Indie-lit (2)

I’ll be taking part in Dzanc Books’ Write-A-Thon, held from December 17 through the 20th.

Besides Dzanc’s work as an independent publisher, their Writer-in-Residence Program has brought writing programs to public schools in Michigan and New York. They also sponsor the Dzanc Prize, previous winners of which have conducted writing programs in cancer centers and prisons.

You can make a donation here or here.

Team Indie-lit (1)

The fine people at HTML Giant are again running an indie-lit Secret Santa program. The basics:

On the sign-deadline, you will find out your recipient and her or his address, and by Christmas (it’s December 25, this year, I think), send them a book from an indie press or a subscription to an indie mag. And you get one too!

I took part last year and found it deeply rewarding; I’ll be doing so again this year.

Crowley / Marias

Some interesting words from John Crowley about a recent Javier Marías appearance at Yale:

He writes with a typewriter, beginning with the first page, with a situation he has been brooding about, and some sense of the implications or characters involved, but no real storyline. He probes forward with this, discovering as he goes (he pointed out that the Latin root of “invent” also has the meaning “discover”), but here’s the thing: he does not ever go back and change what he has written.

Which puts an interesting take on the work of Marías’s that I’ve read. (And this also serves as a reminder that I need to delve back into Crowley’s Ægypt, and soon.

On Cometbus. (Kind of.) Twice.

Two days, two Vol.1 pieces invoking Cometbus. Can’t go wrong with linking that, really.

Most recently, Jason Diamond’s essay “A Kaddish for Jewish Zines.” And yesterday, my review of Jamie Iredell’s Prose. Poems. A novel.

Which, I’d say, also serves as a reminder to myself that I really need to make it over to Book Thug Nation one of these days. (Some context for that last comment can be found here.)

Artifacts.

It’s not long after midnight on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I’m at my parents’ house in New Jersey, my onetime bedroom now occupied by a pair of sleeping beagles.

I’ve spent the last two hours looking for two very random objects: a piece of sheet music and a photograph of myself circa winter 1994, in order to demonstrate exactly what my hair looked like at its longest. (This was, perhaps, not my finest stylistic hour. Or decade.)

So far, I’ve found neither. But the items I have found in assorted college-era containers are doing a fine job of cueing up a surreal set of emotions:

  • Numerous late-9os flyers for NYU shows that helped to introduce me to bands I still listen to regularly (Rex, Aislers Set, etc.), along with other odd items from the Program Board archive;
  • This seven inch, co-released by Douglas Wolk’s label Dark Beloved Cloud long before I’d met the man or read his work;
  • A letter from Jason Molina, responding to interview questions I’d sent for a piece that would appear in an issue of my zine at the time.
  • A photo of my dorm-room workspace circa late 1996, including plastic crates full of problematically aligned CDs and a Van Pelt Stealing From Our Favorite Thieves poster on the wall.

It’s made for a surreal, bittersweet kind of night. And one that, if I might tie in the holiday that just passed, makes me thankful for any number of things in a subtle yet strangely overwhelming way.

In Which Books Are Purchased Via Dalkey Archive Press

Via HTML Giant came news of Dalkey Archive’s “buy 10 books for $65″ deal, running through the 22nd of this month. I decided to take advantage of it this year; below is what I ended up ordering, based on reviews, recommendations, or a feeling of “hey, this looks interesting”. I’m about a quarter of the way through Ajvaz’s The Other City right now, and I’m very impressed so far.

The Saxophone and the Punk Rock

Following Spencer Ackerman’s recommendation, I ordered the debut EP from the Washington, DC-based Gestures. (There’s also an interesting interview with them here.) And it’s good stuff, recalling the post-hardcore sound one might expect from a band affiliated with Dischord Records, but played with horns, woodwinds, and drums. I’ve got a fondness for music that borrows bits and pieces from jazz but throws in some stylistic left turns (Dave Sitek’s “With a Girl Like You” is another recent entry into this pseudo-genre that I’m essentially inventing as I type this), and this record does a fine job of sating that need.

(As I type this, I suddenly realize that I’ve completely slept on picking up the most recent album from Zu, something I really need to correct.)

11.19: A Reading

I’ll be taking part in Vol.1‘s regular reading series this month — tomorrow (i.e. Nov. 19th), in fact. More information can be found here, and below.

Come wish us a happy winter break as we present our final Vol. 1 Brooklyn Storytelling of 2009. This month, we present two contributes to our site, and three newcomers to the Matchless stage.

:Porochista Khakpour
::Clay Mcleod Chapman
:::Tobias Carroll
::::Aaron Hartman
:::::Claire Shefchik

Hosted by Jason Diamond